Research Items

Abstract

HUMAN SKULL FROM KENT'S CAVERN, TORQUAY.—A skull found last year by the owner of Kent's Cavern is described by Sir Arthur Keith in vol. 4, Pt. 4, of the Transactions of the Torquay Natural History Society. The skull had evidently been deposited in a fissure in the rock, and although nothing was discovered which would assist in determining its age, two shells found at the same level near by have been identified as Pleistocene, while the condition of the skull fragments is such as is usually found in bones discovered in or under the stalagmite floors of limestone caves in England. The skull on reconstruction by Sir Arthur Keith is clearly that of a female, short and relatively broad, length 175 mm. (estimated), breadth 143 mm., cephalic index 81 7. It is high, the highest point of the vault being 120 -mm. above the upper margin of the ear. The upper part of the forehead is prominent, projecting in front of the glabella. The face is, remarkably short and narrow, the nose short, flat, and snub. All the teeth were healthy and present at the time of death, which took place about the age of twenty-five years. The palate is virtually identical with the half a human palate found embedded in stalagmite at a depth of 20 inches by Mr. Pengelly in 1867. The skull in form is identical with the remarkable rounded high-vaulted skulls of late palieolithic date found at Aveline's Hole, and comparable to the skulls of very similar form found at Solutr6 in France, which thus suggest a possible place of origin for these paleolithic brachycephals of late paloeolithic age in Britain.